quote:Originally posted by IEBSBL:
I hear Brent Stomm speak one time and here were his thoughts. Why are there so many 5'11 Dominicans that throw 95 and so many 6'3 American pitchers that throw 84? His statements is that American Pitching coaches are so obsessed with Mechanics that they take the natural athletisicm out of the pitcher. Where as the Dominican, in his words, try to figure out how to take a rock and throw it as hard as they can at a tree. He went on to say that there was a study done with 120 woman ages 30-40 and they could not have a athletic background. They broke the group up into 3 group. Group A) Pick up the ball and throw it as hard as you can and hit the targer. Group B) Got some instruction and Group C) Got Mechanical instruction the entire time. At the end of the studey group A threw harder and more accurate followed by group B and group C was dead last. They concluded that if you give the brain simple and limited instruction it is so powerful that it will figure out how to repeat mechanics and be far more succesful than overloading with a bunch of instruction.
This has generally been my philosophy through the years also. My advice to pitchers who want to throw harder- "practice throwing harder". I honestly believe that working on mechanics through instruction for the most part is way over-rated! I am in the camp that the good pitchers throw naturally already and don't need much if any instruction on mechanics. I have resisted over the years on getting my son a personal pitching trainer because he already throws hard naturally and does so without any joint pains whatsoever.